Destination Fear: The 8 Scariest Locations

Travel Channel’s Destination Fear takes viewers on the road trip from Hell. The show’s host, Dakota Laden, piles into an RV with his sister, Chelsea, and his best friends, Tanner and Alex, to travel to the most dangerously active paranormal locations on the planet.

The most frightening part of each episode is when the four young investigators split up to spend the rest of the night sleeping alone in the scariest spots of the most haunted places on earth. Naturally, terror tends to ensue. Every site brings a new element of fear to the series, but there are a few standout destinations that leave audiences horrified to know that these places are really out there.

Rolling Hills Asylum

Dakota chooses the Rolling Hills Asylum to challenge Tanner’s fear of anything bigger than he is. The ghostly asylum is known for some specific spirits from the 1,700 documented deaths on-site, the most chilling of which is 7-foot tall man named Roy.

This asylum has produced one of the greatest pieces of evidence on Ghost Adventures, and Destination Fear documents some equally compelling crystal clear EVPs and poltergeist activity, such as a camera falling over. However, with Ovilus messages like “light” and “hug,” the crew notes that while the prolific evidence is unsettling, the forces do not seem to be as threatening as they are sad. Dakota hits the nail on the head when he says, “It’s hard to get used to anything paranormal happening, even if it’s positive.”

Joliet Prison

Chelsea takes Destination Fear to this hellacious ex-prison at the tail-end of season two as her revenge for being subjected to a road trip full of horror. Joliet prison is well-known for its violent riots and gruesome executions that have sparked a high level of evil spirit activity.

The team’s time at Joliet Prison proves just how much of a nightmare the location is. The evidence is plentiful, including a floating black mass caught on camera by Tanner and Alex. However, what really makes this spot terrifying is the way that unseen forces cut off their walkie-talkie function as everyone splits up, severing their ability to communicate with each other just in time for a sinister presence to make Tanner feel physically ill.

St. Alban’s Sanatorium

In the fourth episode of Destination Fear, the hosts visit the home to a paranormal tale that deserves a movie adaptation. St. Alban’s Sanatorium is said to be the most haunted location on the East Coast, with a history as both an establishment for the mentally ill and a boys’ school that encouraged bullying.

St. Alban’s grim haunt produces plenty of petrifying evidence for the team, most of which comes in the form of auditory documentation. The gang hears disembodied footsteps as well as unexplained bangs and knocks around the entire building. While separated, Dakota and Chelsea even hear the same alarming metallic bang from their individual locations. Watching the cast make their way through this location causes viewers to jump at every noise in their own homes.

Yorktown Memorial Hospital

Chelsea does not pull her punches for her choice of location when she brings the team to Yorktown Memorial Hospital. The activity from over 2,000 violent documented deaths has led this abandoned hospital to be listed as the most haunted place in the state of Texas.

The owner of the hospital tells the crew that even she refuses to go in alone, and with good sense. The chapel is a hotspot at this location, with borderline cinematic demonic activity haunting the four investigators by invoking religious imagery with Ovilus messages like “Jesus” and “Bible.” They even catch a spine-tingling EVP in which audiences can hear an unseen entity saying, “I’m evil… I’m just having a good time.”

Loftus Hall

Featured in one of the best episodes of Ghost Adventures, Loftus Hall is the first international destination that the fear-seeking friends visit. The haunted Ireland mansion is notorious across the globe for allegedly having the spirit of the Devil himself roaming the halls.

Tanner gets the short end of the stick in this hair-raising manor, finding himself locked in the tapestry room for the entirety of the investigation. This is said to be the most haunted room in the house, and it shows when Tanner is forced to scream for Dakota’s help when something unseen begins to pound at the door to the room in what seems like an attempt to break in that shocks audiences.

Hill View Manor

Dakota takes the rest of the team on a redemptive trip to a location that they have visited before, and that they barely got through the first time. Hill View Manor is a former nursing home known for violent activity from quite a few notoriously fierce spirits.

The posse collects several terrifying experiences during the episode, including disembodied footsteps, glitchy walkie-talkies, and unexplained shadows. However, the most blood-curdling part of the episode is when Alex becomes disoriented and physically affected by the haunt while walking through the manor alone. He falls ill, vomiting during the investigation, and is forced to leave to go to the hospital, showing the terrifying power that the entity at this location holds.

Indiana State Sanatorium

Alex throws his teammates for a loop when he chooses the Indiana State Sanatorium as his season 3 location. This ex-sanatorium has never been investigated on-screen before Destination Fear, making Alex, Tanner, Dakota, and Chelsea the first investigators to ever explore it and determine whether or not it is haunted.

The fear of the unknown is what makes this place utterly horrifying. With so little known about the establishment, absolute anything could happen– and it does. In one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that Destination Fear has captured yet, the thermal camera shows a clear-as-day humanoid figure walking past a window in one of the buildings. The precedent-setting evidence in this episode is what makes Destination Fear one of the best shows like Ghost Hunters.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

The scariest location that the Destination Fear has ever visited is Tanner’s season two pick of Trans-Alleghany, an asylum famed for its horrid abuse. With over 20,000 deaths on this property, the activity in the episode is bone-chilling.

The crew collects some astounding paranormal evidence in this episode, but the scariest comes from two phone calls that Alex receives from Tanner, only to hear inhuman screeching on the other end. The reveal that Tanner does not have his phone on him and that it is dead in the empty gear room is straight out of a horror film, but entirely unsurprising for such a tormented site.

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